Name Jean Timoleon | ||
Jean Paul Timoleon de Cosse-Brissac, 7th Duke of Brissac (12 October 1698, Paris - 1784, Sarrelouis), was a French general during the reign of King Louis XV. He is most notable for leading the French vanguard at the Battle of Minden, and he became a Marshal of France. He was also a Grand Panetier of France.
Life
Jean Paul was the second son and third of five children of Artus-Timoleon (1668-1709), Count then 5th Duke of Brissac, and of Marie Louise Bechameil de Nointel (daughter of the financier Louis de Bechameil). He began his military career as a knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, becoming a garde de la marine in 1713. From 1714, he served on the galleys operating out of Malta, fighting in various actions against the Ottoman Empire. In 1716, he fought at the victory at the siege of Corfu under Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg.
Jean Paul left the navy in 1717 and returned to France. There he became the mestre de camp of a cavalry regiment named after him, and he served until the Seven Years' War. He was rewarded for his good conduct at the French defeat at the Battle of Minden in 1759 by being made a Marshal of France.
His courage and politeness were seen as the model of an old-style loyal and frank French knight. He continued wearing Louis XIV-era costume, and for a long time wore a long scarf and a two-queue hairstyle. Charles, Count of Charolais, one day found him at his mistress's house and brusquely told him "Get out, sir", but Brissac replied "Sir, your ancestors would have said 'We get out'".
In 1732, Jean Paul inherited the ducal title when his elder brother, Charles Timoleon Louis (1693-1732), the 6th Duke of Brissac, died without a male heir. That year, Jean Paul married Marie Josephe Durey de Sauroy (died 1756), with whom he had three children :
After Louis-Hercule's death in 1792, the ducal title passed to the heirs of Rene-Hugues de Cosse-Brissac (1702-1754). Rene-Hugues was the third son of Artus-Timoleon (1668-1709), who had been the 5th Duke of Brissac.